The BloodLetter
by Cynogale
Summary: A ferocious predator has escaped from an anomaly and has claimed the urban sprawl of London as its hunting ground- will the team be able to return it home? Set between 3:5 and 3:8
1. Prologue

**Epilogue**

Doctor Sam White wandered slowly down the corridor of Ward 15. It was late- last time he had been able to check the clock it was ten past midnight, and the ward was empty of other hospital staff. Only the patients remained, six of them, all sleeping and recovering in their curtained beds. Doctor White had been making his last rounds before he headed off home to let the night shift take over and now was wandering back to his office to collect some notes he wanted to write up in the morning. He glanced at each of the beds, wrapped by their thin curtains when a bizarre ringing noise up ahead caught his attention. It seemed to be coming from one of the nurses' offices. Along with the noise, the doctor noticed that there was some sort of light emanating from the slightly open door. Reaching out, the doctor grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it open. The sight that greeted him was both beautiful and somehow chilling.

A whirling shape, like a floating collecting of glass shards had miraculously appeared in the middle of the small office. Doctor White felt a tug on his pen, and then noticed several small pieces of metal paraphernalia such as pencil sharpeners zipping into the heart of the whirling shape. Feeling thoroughly freaked out, Doctor White closed the door to and immediately hurried to his office just down the corridor. Wrenching the phone from its cradle, the bespectacled man dialled for the hospital security.

"Hello? There seems to be some sort of problem in Nurse Watkins' room, on corridor fifteen. Some sort of whirling, magnetic shape. Could you please come up and check it out? Ta,"

the doctor set the phone down and sat back, straining his ears to hear the ringing. Deciding that he wouldn't be much more help in dealing with the phenomenon, he heaved himself out of his office chair, picked up the case of papers he intended to sort and left his pokey office.

Immediately, the doctor noticed something was wrong. The door that he had shut not two minutes previously, had seemingly opened by itself. Then, his eyes tracked across the corridor until he noticed something. One of the patients seemed to be lolled in their bed, one arm dangling over the edge of the barrier. His curiosity led him to slowly approach the bed. A faint odour reached the man's nose. Blood. He knew the smell well enough, but in this situation it did nothing to calm his nerves. Doctor White reached out and slowly pulled back the curtain. What he saw next he knew would be burned into his mind permanently. The man who had been recovering in his bed not five minutes previously, was dead. And death had been dealt to him in a most terrible fashion. A great tear ran from the man's right ear around to his left collarbone, completely severing his trachea and hosing blood all over the blanket and pillow. The man's face too had been expertly plucked off, the left cheek completely bitten through and brain fluid leaking from the cavernous hole in the side of the former patient's head. Knowing he had to do something before he fainted from the shock, Doctor White lunged for the panic button. As soon as the ringing began and the other patients roused themselves, he let his instincts take over as he sunk to his knees and was spectacularly sick over the clean tiled floor.

* * *

**First chapter done. Any criticism is welcome (although I am new, so don't be too flamey), let me know what you think of the story so far and tell me if anything needs improving/changing/getting rid of.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The entire team had crowded around the ADD the second it had blared into life. It had just gone midnight and yet, following the reacquisition of the ARC from Christine Johnson the entire team had been busily attempting to complete the tasks that they had been set- Connor and Sarah try to work out the artefact, Danny and Becker shoe up security and Abby carry on with the care of the menagerie creatures. However, that all changed when the ADD signalled that an anomaly had been detected in a large hospital in the centre of London. Now all previous tasks were ignored- the most important thing would be to contain the threat and return any creatures through the anomaly.

"Abby, you grab the tranquilisers. Becker, live rounds. Connor, we'll need the handheld detector and Sarah, you get the locking device. Let's go!"

With a clap of Danny's hands, the rest of the team jumped into action. Their urgency was explained by the anomaly location- the smell of blood and chemicals in a hospital could easily pass through it and draw in anything even remotely carnivorous. As the team gathered their equipment in record time, the beta-team packed away the artefact and manned the stations at the ADD. After the brief stint of Christine being in charge, no-one was going to leave the artefact lying around. Within minutes, the main group of five, along with four of Becker's best hand-picked soldiers were gathered at the underground parking for the ARC trucks- specially made armoured vehicles that could withstand an Allosaurus attack at a push. Immediately, Danny, Connor, Abby, Sarah and Jenkins, Becker's second-in-command, jumped into the lead vehicle while Becker and the rest of his unit clambered into the second one, hauling their weapons cases in with them. Danny immediately gunned the engine of the truck and with a squeal of tyres, began the high-speed race towards the anomaly location. As he pulled out into the darkened streets, he turned to Sarah, who was sat up front with him. He grinned at her.

"Let's go catch some dinosaurs."

* * *

The entire journey took no more than twenty minutes, given that at half past midnight very few people were on the roads. As the two vehicles pulled into the hospital car park, they were greeted by what could be passed as anarchy. Several of the occupied beds had been wheeled out to the front of the hospital and milling around with them were a confused and shouting collection of doctors and policemen. Knowing that this was his forte, Danny turned off the truck engine and climbed from the driver's seat. Very quickly, he found what looked like the chief of the police force that had arrived to investigate the disturbance.

"Can you tell me what's happened here, sir?" he asked politely. The policeman, a tall, rangy bloke with an air of arrogance about him glanced at Danny sideways before answering.

"Sorry sir, this is a police matter. Now if you could please move away from the entrance, we are having to evacuate the wards."

Oh, well. Danny had tried playing good cop. He pulled his ARC ID card from his jacket pocket and flashed it to the police chief. Upon glancing at it, the man baulked and then glanced over Danny's shoulder, presumably at Becker and his unit as they loaded clips into their sub-machine guns.

"Like I was saying, can you tell me what happened here?" Danny asked again, and this time the policeman answered quickly, as if some sort of current had been passed through his body.

"We have been told that one of the patients has been attacked in Ward 15, up on the second floor,"

"And had they been?" Danny asked impatiently. He knew he was coming across as rude, but lives could be at stake. The policeman just nodded.

"He was torn up pretty badly when we got to him. He'd been dead for a good fifteen minutes before we got on the scene," Danny just nodded.

"Thank you. Now, I want you to seal off the second floor. If you are still evacuating patients from the third floor use the lifts," Danny turned back to the rest of the team without waiting for the policeman to address him and found them all gathered around, equipment and weaponry in hand. He nodded to them, and then gestured towards the hospital entrance with a tilt of the head.

"Let's get going. I can't imagine us being invited in."

* * *

Sarah had stuck to Becker's side like a limpet. Although she tried not to show it, she was positively terrified. Danny had brought them up to speed as they crossed the main hospital waiting room- some poor man in one of the wards had been attacked while he was asleep, and that confirmed that there definitely was some sort of predator loose in the hospital. The though sent shivers up and down her spine. The group travelled up a wide staircase while Connor babbled to himself about what the creature could be.

"I imagine it wouldn't be something that big- no Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus for us. But I guess it could be anything under half a tonne in weight. The floor looks like it could support some serious bulk..." Danny cut him off.

"Shut up, Connor. Keep your eyes and ears about you- we're getting close."

"Shutting up," Connor whispered, keeping behind Abby who had a tranquiliser rifle resting in the crook of her arm. As the team wandered into the main corridor leading off into the different wards, Sarah caught a distinctive smell on the air. Blood. She remembered the smell from her time in the museum, when Marion had been slaughtered by the Ammut... Pristichampsus... whatever it was. The smell made her stomach turn over, but she followed Danny's lead nonetheless. Suddenly, Danny came to a halt outside Ward 15, and held his hand out, palm up, to stop the rest of the group in their tracks. Becker turned and nodded to his four soldiers, and through a series of hand signals, indicated that they go off in pairs and secure the rest of the wards. The four men scampered off with their sub-machine guns pinned to their chests. Danny then nodded into the ward.

"Come on. This thing could have come back,"

Sarah was distracted by the faint pinging of Connor's handheld detector. That reminded her of her purpose on the field team. She held the locking mechanism close to her before leaning forward and whispering to Danny.

"The anomaly is close. It's somewhere in this ward." Danny nodded to her and then indicated for Becker to go with her to find it. The dark-haired, dashing Captain escorted Sarah into the ward at a slight crouch, his gun on a swivel, looking for some toothed beast that could be secreted in the shadows. The ringing of the handheld detector became louder and louder, until finally Sarah located it. It was in the middle of one of the nurse's offices, gyrating and shining perfectly. She was stunned at how something so beautiful could also be so very dangerous. Sarah nodded to Becker and began to set up the locking mechanism- she was still learning how it worked, although it was hardly difficult to guess what the controls were. As the screwed the piston onto the end of the barrel, she heard a startled gasp from behind her and immediately spun on the spot to see what it was. And what she saw, she knew would live with her until her dying day.

Danny and Connor were still checking the other beds when Abby had come across the only occupied hospital cot. On one side, the curtains had been torn from their railings and from her vantage point by the office, Sarah could see the carnage within. The man was sprawled against the wall, lying half in-half out of the bed. His face had been completely torn from his head. Gobbets of red flesh were strewn over the covers and a mire of almost black blood had pooled under the bed. Despite the amount of blood, very little seemed to have been devoured. The predator, whatever it was, could still be watching hungrily, waiting to reclaim its kill. Connor and Danny quickly crowded around with Abby, mercifully shielding the corpse from Sarah's view. Becker wandered over to join them, his face drawn with disgust. How had Sarah just walked past that. Now she knew the body was there, she could smell the heady scent of blood and hear its steady drip as it splashed onto the tiled floor. As Sarah turned back to the locking device to try and lock the anomaly for good, she heard Abby start talking.

"Whatever this was, it was fast and vicious. The first bite went here," she said, indicating the man's aorta. "And once he was dead, it tried to open his skull. It succeeded too, there and there." Sarah tried to block out the mental images of two fang marks in the side of the man's skull. Suddenly, Connor appeared at her shoulder, white as a ghost.

"Don't sneak up on me," she hissed, shaking slightly herself. He gulped, no trace of humour on his face or in his eyes.

"Sorry. You've got it working, then?" Sarah just nodded, pushed the large button in the middle of the control panel, and watched as the anomaly shrank back into a condensed ball. Connor nodded to himself, and managed a thin smile at Sarah.

"Good work." He pulled himself up from his crouch, and joined the rest of the team at the bed. The rest of the team began conversing amongst themselves again.

"What sort of creatures have injuries that link to this sort of attack, Abby?" asked Becker, checking his clip for bullets.

"The facial bite I would say rules out a big cat. But in our experience, raptors seem to go for it a lot. If we're looking at other animals too, then bears, wolves, primates and monitor lizards all tend to go for the head and neck, although I would say the tooth size rules out the latter." Danny nodded before turning to Connor.

"Are there examples of those creatures in the fossil record, Connor?" The young man nodded enthusiastically and began listing the carnivores that matched Abby's descriptions.

"Oh yeah, there were dire wolves, you had short-faced and cave bears, then there was _Dinopithecus_, that was a flesh-eating baboon the size of a gorilla..."

"That's enough, thanks Connor," said Danny, passing a concerned glance my way. I just swallowed. This was going to be a long night...

* * *

**There we are. Is our monster something Connor has plucked from that fabulous brain of his, or was it something Abby hadn't even considered? It could even be from the future- that would be nasty. As always, please review, let me know what you think and take a guess at what our terrifying monster is going to be?**


	3. Chapter 2

**Many thanks to Rubytronix for the review, and also thanks to SAndyLee Potts for the kind words and alerting me to the mismatched rating. Hope you enjoy the next chapter!**

**Chapter 2**

Abby was confused about something. As Danny pulled out his pistol and began checking the rest of the ward and Becker went and stood at the doorway to the ward, she began inspecting the body closer. Connor paled even more and turned away to gag. It didn't matter if Connor was feeling a bit queasy at the moment, even though she didn't like the thought of him making himself ill at all. Abby pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and snapped them on, before leaning over the ripped carcass to give her diagnosis. Whatever it was had been fast. The man had probably not even woken up. Just sleeping peacefully and then, _bang_! Dead. Looking closely, I began mentally crossing things off in my head. The tooth marks looking too curved and long to belong to a wolf, and a bear would surely crush the skull under a blow from the paws before making a bite. And yet, the skull was completely intact, save from the double puncture holes near his temples. Right now, Connor's idea of a giant baboon seemed most likely, but Abby was still trying to work something out in her head. She looked around at the setting. The curtains had been torn from their railings on one side, but that could have been the creature just thrashing while it fed. And then, the answer struck Abby like a hammer-blow. She whistled for Danny's attention. Becker, Sarah and Connor all jumped and span towards her too.

"Whatever we're looking for, it can get around without leaving an obvious trail." Abby indicated the floor.

"If we were looking for a terrestrial predator, we'd be having bloodied footprints everywhere. Here though, nothing. Either it can attack from afar, say with a long neck, or it can fly." Neither of those were preferable. Danny pursed his lips, and nodded. He turned to Captain Becker.

"Relay that to your men, Becker." The Captain nodded, pulled a two-way radio from his belt and began giving hushed instructions to the rest of his unit. Connor meanwhile, began listing what new possibilities the creature could be to himself.

"Tanystropheus, maybe- they have long necks and sharp teeth. Or some sort of flesh-eating pterosaur. Bigger than Anurognathus probably- hopefully less social," he added with a shudder. Abby remembered that incident, years ago, when the flock of flesh-eating micro pterosaurs came through an anomaly in the grounds of a country house. They'd barely escaped with their lives. Abby glanced at Connor. She almost felt sorry for him- he was too pure of heart and naive to be wrapped up in so much death, but then she remembered all his moments of brilliance, where either his massive intellect, immense bravery or simple Connor logic had saved the day. She smiled to herself and then realised how weird she must have looked, grinning like a loon while she was seated next to a mutilated human body. She wiped her smile off her face, and hefted the tranquiliser rifle off her lap to help Danny and Becker in the search for the mystery predator. Just as she rose to her feet, everything went black.

* * *

Connor was the first to give a surprised cry as the lights suddenly went out. What should have been a simple in-out operation was quickly becoming a living nightmare. The entire premise- in a tall building full of medical equipment and some bloodthirsty monster prowling the corridors, reminded him of a film he had seen ages ago with Tom and Duncan, about some genetically altered baboon that ate people. Connor almost chuckled as he remembered the film- it was a perfect, cheesy B-movie. Maybe, if he survived this, he would show it to Abby on one of their movie nights. Then, after that instant of remembrance, Connor remembered how serious a situation they were all in. They were sharing a building with a deadly predator and now he could barely see his own hand in front of his face. Immediately, Becker's agitated snarl sounded.

"Damn it! The power's gone! We need torches, a back-up light, anything. Connor, do we have anything to see with?"

"Spotlights, down in the trucks." Immediately, Danny answered back savagely.

"Why didn't you bring them up with you? It's night, Connor! We don't normally need torches, but I'd have thought you'd be clever enough to realise we might need illumination when its one in the morning!" He sounded exasperated, in fact almost as exasperated as Connor felt. Before he could respond, Abby jumped to his defence.

"How was Connor supposed to know we'd have a blackout? Don't blame him- I'll just go down and get them..."

"NO!" Connor and Danny shouted together. Connor couldn't bear for Abby to wander off into the dark and end up ripped and torn like the man in the bed just across from him.

"We need you up here Abby- Connor you go get them," Danny responded. _Thanks Danny_, Connor mentally growled.

As Connor began to sneak back towards where he guessed the doorway was, he was interrupted by a bright light partially illuminating the room. Captain Becker turned and gave them one of his million-dollar grins.

"Lucky for you lot lights come standard issue on these beauties, eh?" he said, indicating the sub-machine gun in his hands. He pulled out his radio again, and went through to one of his men.

"Mason? I need you to get down to the trucks and get us the spotlights. I think we'll need them."

"Right you are, Captain," came the crackling response. Immediately, Danny smiled around in the half-light.

"Now that that's out of the way, let's split up and look for clues."

* * *

Sarah crouched in the darkness, trembling with dread. The thought of a predator sitting there, watching them, was petrifying. Danny, Abby and Becker were now preparing to head back into the main corridor, while Connor hung back with Sarah in the safety of Ward 15. As the sound of footsteps receded, Sarah tried to calm herself with deep breaths. Connor glanced over at her.

"You alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Not really, considering I'm in the dark with something out and trying to eat us. Thanks for the concern though Connor," she spat. Sarah regretted it instantly, seeing Connor shuffle away into the darkness.

"I'm sorry, Connor," she yelped loudly. "Don't leave me here!" Immediately Connor was back at her side, patting her shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere- you don't have to worry 'bout a thing." For some reason, that didn't make Sarah feel any better.

Then, there was a faint sound from down the ward corridor- from the end office. One that had belonged to a certain Doctor White, Sarah remembered. It was a shuffling sound, and then the crunch of splintering bone. Immediately Connor was on his feet, and Sarah leapt up too, glancing around like a startled deer. Connor began to trot towards the main corridor, presumably to flag down some assistance. That left Sarah exposed, and she began to hyperventilate. She kept her eyes fixed on the doorway into Doctor White's office, and hoped she was just having a bad dream.

* * *

The predator _hated_ interruptions. It had made a kill, the first in three days after the delightful smell of packaged blood drew it from its swampy homeland into the clinical, clean landscape, only to be startled by the fat man with the facial hair and pieces of glass on the front of its face. Now he too was dead, his throat torn out and leaking blood. The predator, not missing a beat, dipped its terrible snout to feed, lapping blood from the oozing throat wound and cherishing the smell and taste of the liquid dinner. Then, the new humans had arrived, armed to the teeth. He crept under the desk, ready to spring up when they investigated his second kill. But they never did. Then, the lights went out. All the better for a nocturnal predator. And then, half the pack of two-legged scavengers had stalked off into the dark. He shifted on his knuckles, watching the remaining male and female. Neither were armed, and they both seemed so out of place in the dark. Deciding it was safe, the predator shuffled forwards on its knuckles and dipped its head again. After lapping some of the rapidly clotting blood, the predator took the man's cheek in its mouth before clamping its jaws shut again. Teeth that wouldn't have looked out of place on a bear trap went through skin, flesh and bone like it was nothing at all. But there was still that delightful dinner-bell crunch of the cheekbone being torn into. Looking up, the predator noticed the two humans had heard the noise too. The male stumbled off, leaving the waifish female by herself. She stared at him through the crack in the doorway, not quite seeing him. He felt threatened. This kill was _his_. This foolish human had better leave him be, or he'd tear her face off too. She didn't stop staring though, and the predator felt his lips roll back on blood-stained fangs. With an ethereal shriek, the predator threw itself up, tearing the door off its hinges and leaping for the now screaming female, fangs bared and ready to finish her off.

**Christ on a bike! What a development! Please review, let me know if there is anything you like or loathe (but don't be too nasty, or I'll be nasty to all your favourite characters) and take a guess on what our monstery friend might be.**

**P.S. The film that Connor thinks about is a real film that goes by the name of Shakma. I have never seen it before, but it looks hilarious. Check out the trailer for it on Youtube.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Sorry I haven't been able to update recently- been revising for university exams. Now that they are all over, I'll have plenty more time for writing! Yippee!**

* * *

Connor heard Sarah shriek with terror from behind him and turned swiftly on his heel. A shape had torn from behind the doorway of the doctor's office and attached itself to Sarah's front. She crumpled to the ground, and in the dim light, Connor could see her struggling to hold back the creature as it lunged repeatedly for her face. Not knowing what he was going to do, but knowing he had to do something, Connor pelted towards the entwined pair. As he raced towards them, Connor tried to recognise the animal. It had enormous, misshapen fangs that were smeared with blood, long ears held flat against its head and an elongated muzzle. Connor also noticed leathery wings, pinning Sarah down as it tried to administer a killing bite.

Connor brought back his foot, and booted the creature in the side of the head. It rolled off Sarah, dragging a terrible claw along her front that made a shallow cut into her torso. The creature struggled onto its knuckles and snarled like a rabid dog. Seeing its hunt over, the creature threw itself into the air, letting its wings carry it up. Only now did Connor see the size of the creature- it was similar in proportions to a border collie, only many times more deadly. He could hear footsteps from the corridor behind him- Danny, Becker and Abby must have heard Sarah's agonised cry as the claw scratched her and come running. But before the rest of the team could arrive, the creature fled back into the darkened room, where there was a scrabbling, a squeal of claws on glass and then nothing. Connor fell to the ground, panting heavily. They had survived.

* * *

As soon as Becker swung around the corner into Ward 15, he stopped short. Connor was hunched against a wall, panting heavily while Sarah was clutching her stomach and shaking uncontrollably. Instantly, Becker remembered what he was here for. Protect the team. Keep them alive. He went to Sarah first, while Danny and Abby gathered around Connor.

"It was so fast. It... it tried to kill us," groaned Connor, who had gone a shade paler than he was before. Abby rubbed his arm comfortingly and spoke softly to him, urging him to calm down. Danny on the other hand, while still showing the same concern as Abby, was much more down to business.

"Did you see what it was, mate? Do you know where it went?" Connor answered quickly- he was probably still high on adrenaline after his bout with the creature.

"It had wings. It could fly, and it had big teeth. A long nose- maybe a beak. I didn't really focus on it that much; I just saw its teeth and panicked really. I kicked it in the side of the head, and it then flew back into the office over there." He pointed once at the office at the end before he descended back into silence and began staring at his shoes. Sarah sat up, and as Becker helped her, he couldn't help but notice the amount of blood staining her shirt.

"What happened to Sarah, Temple?" demanded Becker, turning to the Connor with steely eyes. Sarah gave a pain-wracked cough before answering on her saviour's behalf.

"It just snagged me when Connor knocked it off. It's fine, really," she added as an afterthought when Becker turned towards Connor with a dangerous look.

Becker quietly simmered, glaring at Connor for several seconds before his gaze dropped back to Sarah, supporting her with one of his arms as she slowly clambered to her feet. Becker felt himself grimace when he saw where the solitary dew claw had raked through Sarah's thin shirt and slashed her stomach.

"Are you sure you'll be alright? That looks pretty serious," she gave a soft laugh, then winced with the action of doing so.

"I'll be fine. Just put some dressing on when we get back to the ARC. Now let's go find this creature," she said, mimicking Danny near-perfectly. Becker patted her on the shoulder before helping her to her feet. The five all turned towards the broken office door. This was it.

* * *

Becker entered the room first, with Danny and Abby following them. Danny heard Becker snarl in frustration, before he saw the source of the captain's annoyance. It turned out that Doctor White had a window in his office. It had been forced from the inside and opened out onto the dimly lit streets of London. Danny shook his head slowly.

"Great. Now our creature is loose somewhere in London. Sometimes I wonder why we bother with all these intricate traps when they just bust through a window and sod off into the dark," he said to himself, taking a step back from the window as he did so.

Something crunched under his foot. Danny turned to see what he had stepped in, and yelled with shock. Becker and Abby swung around, and Connor and Sarah looked down into the shadows by Danny's left foot. Lying with a debris of medical papers around him, was the carcass of a man who was presumably Doctor White. His face too had been ripped off, his throat opened and blood hosed up the shadowy wall. Danny realised that the thing he had crunched on were shattered chunks of the man's jawbone. Danny felt himself pale before he stumbled out towards a sink in the ward and emptied his guts into it. The rest of the team followed him out. Captain Becker took the lead, now that their leader was temporarily incapacitated.

"Sarah, Connor, get back to the trucks. I'll radio through my men, and then we'll all get the hell out of here," Danny nodded, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Good plan, Becker. We'll cover you while you radio them."

"What about the anomaly?" whispered Sarah, glancing at the locking device that sat half in-half out of the nurse's doorway. Suddenly, Danny realised the oppressive silence- no ringing that indicated an anomaly.

"I think it's gone," he whispered.

Connor stepped forward and checked through the doorway, and nodded in confirmation.

"Yep. It's closed. Now we'll have to hunt down and kill it in the dark,"

"Nope. We're not doing this in the dark," said Danny, and Becker agreed with him.

"We're all dead on our feet from tiredness, and I think, Connor, that you and Sarah are suffering from mild shock," Abby broke the moment by yawning loudly. Becker simply nodded.

"Right then, let's all get out of here and regroup in the morni..."

Danny was interrupted- out in the corridor there was a terrible screaming. Abby raised her tranquiliser rifle and Danny whipped out his pistol.

"Or not," Danny finished grimly.

* * *

Becker led the charge, his sub-machine gun ready to fire. As soon as he pulled out into the corridor, he was greeted with a grim sight. Harper, one of his men, had been attacked. A creature, possibly the same one that re-entered through another window or, god forbid, another one had got him. Again, the attack had been at the face and had displayed the swift and surgical work of the predator. His throat had been plucked out, and blood spatters indicated the predator had again fled the scene of the attack and disappeared from the ward 13 windows, which as with Doctor White's windowpane appeared to have been forced by the creature. The only small mercy was that Harper had been killed quickly. He had been spared the pain of having some winged devil vivisect him while he was on his feet. Despite the obvious fact that the man was dead, Danny looked as it they should do something.

"Quick! Call a medic!" Danny yelled, seizing Becker's radio from his pocket and buzzing through to the beta team. While Danny was preoccupied with the call, Becker noticed Sarah and Connor had completely averted their gazes, their faces grim and stricken at the same time. Abby watched the dead man from the corner of her eyes, her face a picture of sympathy and disgust. Disgust, of a man having to end their life in such a terrible way. This was what anomalies did. They loosed creatures- no, monsters, into a world they were never intended to exist in. And then they wreaked havoc, leaving this small rag-tag team to clear up the often-bloody messes they left behind. Becker heard a small frightened sound from behind him, and turned to see Sarah trembling all over. She really shouldn't be here- she was an academic and not cut out for the feral nature of the creatures they were dealing with. He gestured to Connor and Sarah.

"You two get out of here- Abby too. I'll call my men- we'll need to get the bodies back to the morgue for... examination," Becker said, gulping. Examining the corpses in the ARC morgue was never fun- it was built for creature autopsies, but in a case such as this there would need to be further studies on the bodies before they could be released to their families.

"Come on," whispered Abby, taking Connor by the elbow with her rifle hanging down next to her. Connor walked on slowly, almost robotically, while Abby took Sarah's hand and gently guided her back towards the stairway. Danny scanned the area once, and then retreated too. Alone in the darkened corridor, Becker toyed with the radio that Danny had passed back to him before he had left with the others. Finally, the captain buzzed through to his three remaining soldiers.

"Jenkins, Mason, Lemon, come in. We have a man down. I repeat, Harper is down. All units come to ward 13. We have clean-up to deal with."

* * *

As the team watched the three corpses being wheeled out in body bags towards one of the ARC vans while Becker's soldiers held off the small mob of doctors, patients and policemen gathered around the entrance, they didn't glance behind them towards the line of London plane trees. Because if they had, they would have seen the source of all this bloodshed. The predator considered the group with black eyes, lips briefly curling back on curved fangs before it paused. A distant sound had distracted it. With a pump of its membranous wings, the creature rose into the night sky and flapped in the direction of the railway verge where the sound had emanated from. Connor briefly thought he had the rustle of leaves, but by the time he had turned back to investigate, the creature was long gone, rising into the London night sky.

* * *

**And there's your next lot. Hope you enjoyed reading, and please let me know how I can improve my story for everyone's enjoyment.**


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